Good Morning, America, How Are You?

Just fine! I’m writing from aboard Amtrak’s Regional service between New York’s Penn Station and Union Station in our nation’s capital. I’m enjoying the grandeur of travel by rail… through Jersey. Awesome!

This represents a break in Michael Danziger’s “Bluff City to the Big City” New York City Stand-Up Comedy Extravaganza 2005 (or the MDBCBCNYCSUCE’05, for short), which has been great since last I wrote. My last 4 performances – which bring the total to 11 – have been before sizeable audiences and have been a lot of fun. My sets have been very well-received, swelling my ego in ways never before imagined. Just kidding about the ego, but I had almost forgotten how much fun it is to perform for real people, as opposed to roomsful of comedians.

Speaking of real people, now’s a great time for a very special thanks to the family, friends, and friends-of-friends who made it to one show or another. It was exceedingly nice of them/you to make time to come out and support/judge me, sometimes at significant expense.

So here’s the list of clubs at which I’ve performed: The Village Lantern, The Bowery Poetry Club, Sal’s Comedy Hole (probably my favorite name), Comedy Cellar, New York Comedy Club (3 times), The Duplex, Laugh Lounge NY, Stand Up New York, and Gotham Comedy Club. We’ll see about adding one or two more next week before I return home.

Finally, I am on the way to D.C. to cheer on two friends who are running the Marine Corps Marathon there tomorrow. I’m proud of them and know they will do well. I do have to wonder about the increasingly large number of friends, family, and acquaintances that have chosen to run marathons in recent years. It’s hard for me to believe that I have enough in common with these people to maintain our relationships! Why would anyone run a marathon? It’s healthy to be able to run 26 miles, but I’m absolutely certain that it’s not healthy to actually do it. The name marathon comes from the Battle of Marathon, which happened back in the days of yore. You know. Back in umm… yore. At the conclusion of the battle, a messenger ran to spread the news of victory, crying “Nike! Nike!” which may or may not mean victory. His legendary run is the namesake of the modern races. The part of the story I think we are a wee bit too quick to forget is that, according to the lore (That’s yore and lore in one paragraph, for those keeping lore/yore score at home.) the messenger, after having successfully delivered his message (i.e. run his marathon), dropped dead.

Yeah, I gotta get out and run me one of these!